The natives, who had for some time past given very little interruption, toward the end of the month attacked Henry Hacking, one of the quarter-masters of the Sirius, who, being reckoned a good shot, was allowed to shoot for the officers and ship’s company.  His account was, that, being in the woods, a stone was thrown at him from one of two natives whom he perceived behind him, and that on looking about he found dispersed among the trees a number that could not be less than forty.  Wishing to intimidate them, he several times only presented his piece toward them; but, finding that they followed him, he at last gave them the contents, which happened to be small shot for birds.  These he replaced with buckshot, and got rid of his troublesome and designing followers by discharging his piece a second time.  They all made off; but some of them stumbling as they ran, he apprehended they had been wounded.  This account met with more credit than could usually be allowed to such tales, as the person who gave it was held in great estimation by the officers of his ship both as a man and as a seaman.

Mr. Palmer, the purser of the Sirius, having occasion to cut timber in a cove down the harbour, was visited by some natives, who took an opportunity of concealing two of his axes in the bushes.  On his missing the implements, the natives went off in some consternation, leaving two children behind them, whom Mr. Palmer detained, and would have brought up to the settlement, had not their friends ransomed them with the property that had been stolen.

At Rose Hill, where the corn promised well, an Emu had been killed, which stood seven feet high, was a female, and when opened was found to contain exactly fifty eggs.

October.] The launch that was begun in May last by the carpenter of the Supply, being completed, was put into the water the 5th of October.  From the quantity of wood used in her construction she appeared to be a mere bed of timber, and, when launched, was named by the convicts, with an happiness that is sometimes visible in the allusions of the lower order of people, The Rose Hill Packet*.  She was very soon employed in transporting provisions to Rose Hill, and going up with the tide of flood, at the top of high water, passed very well over the flats at the upper part of the harbour.

[* She was afterwards generally known by the name of The Lump, a word more strictly applying to her size and construction.]

Our enemies the rats, who worked unseen, and attacked us where we were most vulnerable, being again observed in numbers about the provision store, the commissary caused the provisions to be moved out of one store into another; for, alas! at this period they could be all contained in one.  These pernicious vermin were found to be very numerous, and the damage they had done much greater than the state of our stores would admit.  Eight casks of flour were at one time found wholly destroyed.  From the store, such as escaped the hunger of the different dogs that were turned loose upon them flew to the gardens of individuals, where they rioted upon the Indian corn which was growing, and did considerable mischief